Happiness is a Warm Baguette

To quote a song from one of my favorite Audrey Hepburn movies, Funny Face, "Bonjour Pari(s)!"  I arrived in Paris yesterday around noon local time.  After an exhausting, long, hot (it has been in the high 90's the past two days here!) walk from the train station to the bus and then to the hotel, we finally arrived and met the directors of our summer program. Then last night we went as a group to take a boat tour of Paris on the Seine.  It was a really neat way to get a gist of the overall layout of Paris. After that we ate at a little Italian place.  The wait staff was super friendly.  They even put our water bottles in the fridge while we ate so that they would be cold for us! Today we took our placement test for our french classes.  It was so hard! I do not think I will get placed at the level I was hoping for but that is okay.  I will still receive credit either way so I am not too concerned.  Afterwards we went to a small cafe which turned out to be the first lackluster meal I have had in Paris.  I ordered "Chicken Tex Mex," because it was that or 21$ salad.  However, apparently the french interpretation of Chicken Tex Mex is 3 buffalo wings on top of potatoes and peppers.  A couple of the other girls ordered "guacamole with tacos," and received guacamole with tostitto chips stuck in it.  Lesson learned.  After lunch we visited the Pantheon.  I got to see where Victor Hugo (Author of Les Mis) , Alexander Dumas (author of the Counte of Monte Cristo), and Marie Curie are laid to rest ( I would say buried except it is a crypt). That was a really cool/creepy experience.  I am finally becoming familiar with the metro and RER routes.  Paris is really easy to navigate which is lucky for us since our hotel is on the outskirts of the city.  We have a 40 minute commute to class each day.  Which is actually kind of nice because we get the feel of how the average, working, Parisian feels.  Our neighborhood is also less touristy so the cafes and markets around here are a little more authentic.  I am in love with the city.  There is so much to see and do! Im not sure if 6 weeks will be long enough to accomplish everything I want to do :) Tonight I felt very Parisian walking home with my bag of groceries (with a baguette sticking out of the top) bought from the local grocer and baker.  As I was walking back to the hotel, groceries in hand, rain started falling from the sky, I felt like something was missing, and then I realized it was.  Stress was not there. Worry was not there.  I was completely happy and at peace.  I felt grandma's presence with every rain drop.  It was an amazing moment.  It confirmed for me that this is where I am supposed to be right now.  I am supposed to be making friends from all over the country (and Mexico, Canada, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico), I am supposed to be seeing all of the places I have read about in books, I am supposed to take on adult responsibilities like commuting and grocery shopping every week, and I am supposed to be doing all of this self-reflection.  She may not be able to hug me anymore, but she sure can comfort me still. I will leave you with another quote "America is my country, and Paris is my hometown." -Gertrude Stein

Cheers, London!

Yesterday was a difficult day.  I have grown so much closer with my family over the past month that leaving them proved to be a lot harder than I anticipated.  I was tired, jet lagged, in need of a shower, and very homesick yesterday.  As soon as we were dropped off at the hotel, we were pretty much on our own.  Just handed a map and told to be on our way.  This was very stressful for me.  I learned something about myself on the first day....I prefer a little bit of structure.  For a control freak like me, the helplessness that came with not knowing where anything is, no set destination, and no close friends to be lost with (yet), I felt lost, and not just physically.  It was a rough day.  However, after a shower and some sleep, I feel a lot better today.  This morning we went on a sightseeing tour of London with our group.  We got to see Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, all of the bridges, and drove past many other sights.  Unfortunately, Westminster Abby was closed for tourism today since it is Sunday and they had services.  This slight let down, however, was overshadowed by the fact that I got to have my picture taken at Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station! (Harry Potter fans understand).  Then my new friends and I got an accidental tour of MORE of London when we got on the wrong bus...and did not notice it for an hour.  Luckily, we befriended one of the Underground employees and he not only told us what route would get us to the stop we needed, but also let us in for free (the all day passes we had purchased only worked in the 2 main zones of the city and we had gone past those). 
            I had a great day in London, and it is wonderful...but its just not my city. I cannot WAIT to be in Paris.  The city of lights is calling my name for many reasons.  Obviously reason #1 is because I am, and have been for quite some time, infatuated with it.  But also because I cannot wait to get a hair straightener, a phone, and some sense of settlement and structure.  Once I am able to unpack my clothes, not look like a scrub everyday since I cant straighten my hair, and go through a couple of days of orientation and tours, I will feel so much better.  Also..I WANT A PHONE! I cannot even count the number of times the past two days that I have taken my phone out of my pocket to text, facebook, or check my email only to be met with the disappointment that without wireless (which u have to pay for in the London hotel), my iPhone is nothing more than an iPod with a clock.  Once I am able to keep in touch more with the outside world I will be a lot more at ease.  It is scary to be out at night (even with other people) and know that even if you needed to, you could not call for help.  It also makes meeting up with other people a pain in the ass! If so and so does not show up at the meeting spot on time, is it because they changed their mind about going or because they no longer want to go? Very frustrating.  So tonight I think I will just shower, import pictures to my computer and take it easy.  I think this is a good plan since we have to be up to catch the train to Paris at 5:30am tomorrow. Yikes! Love and miss you all! Cheers!

I Hope You Don't Mind That I Put Down In Words...

In less than 48 hours I will be boarding a plane to London, England.  Two days after that I will be boarding a train headed for Paris, France where I will be studying for six weeks.  I must admit that I am a little nervous about flying alone for the first time ever...and to a foreign country...where I will know no one.  However, I feel like a trip of this nature could not have come at a better time for me.  My grandmother, who I was very close with, passed away last Friday, June 17.  Over the last month the rest of my family and myself had to watch helplessly as her health deteriorated.  This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  My grandmother was an amazing person.  She traveled to Paris herself in the 1980's and had been raving to me for the past year about how much fun I was going to have on this trip and sharing travel tips.  With everything that was going on with grandma's health, I was uncertain whether or not I could make this trip in good conscience.  As she has done for the past twenty years, grandma sensed that something was troubling me.  One of the last things she said to me was "You need to go.  You need to go to Paris."  It has been my personal experience that disobeying grandma never ends well.  Therefore, I am going to Paris and in her honor, I am determined to have the time of my life.  I think that what started out as a fun way to be emerged into a foreign culture has become much more than that.  I think being able to grieve on my own in unfamiliar territory while meeting new people and experiencing new things is the perfect recipe for some very intense soul searching.  I think I will discover more about not just Paris, but about myself over the next six weeks than I have the last twenty years.  A void appeared in my life last Friday with the passing of my grandma.  She was my hero, my confidant, my source of advice, and one of the most amazing individuals I have ever had the grace of knowing.  I know that grandma will now be joining me on this trip.  As my dad put it, "She is flying co-pilot."  This brings me great comfort.  So, I will fill that void in my life with adventure.  I will seize every opportunity and I will leap into the unknown. But for now, I should probably begin packing :) I would like to close my first post with one of my favorite quotes. "The world is a book and those who do not travel, read only one page." Au revoir America! I will blog often